And by the way, the best version of Space Invaders is the PC Engine. I don't know if you've played it. It's the best one, just so you know.

KF: It's a long time ago! (laughs)

Also I noticed that Exit is coming out on Xbox Live Arcade, but I have not seen any other publisher name but Taito on it. Is that also self-published by Taito? [Ed. note: Exit was published on the PSP in the west by Ubisoft.]

KF: That is self-published by Taito.

So will Taito be doing more of that going forward, and are you also in charge of that?

KF: I'm not really in charge, because the Live Arcade version is being taken care of by Taito headquarters in Japan. I know the story about it, because I want to launch local Taito games for Live Arcade since I'm here. After I had a discussion with them, they decided to go on their own and go directly to Microsoft to publish their games.

So they go with it in the Japan side, and then it gets released here?

KF: Yes.

It's an interesting tactic, considering the U.S. is where it can actually succeed, and in Japan, who knows?

KF: Actually, they should make use of Square Enix, which is the company that exists here. I think it's because of a management decision, but I don't know exactly why they decided to go [that way].

I was wondering how the relationship was between Square Enix and Taito right now.

KF: Square Enix owns one hundred percent share of Taito Corporation, so it's a fully owned subsidiary, actually. Branding-wise, they make it separate, so Square Enix doesn't want to show their name for Taito game titles, because they're totally different kinds of games. One is famous for RPGs, and the other is famous for arcade classics and causal games. The taste is totally different, so they want to make it separate.

But do they have management control of Taito?

KF: Basically, the president is the same. Square Enix's president is also the president of Taito Corporation now. And then Taito has an office in Tokyo. We had a separate location, but now we moved to the same building as where Square Enix is located. It's a different floor, but we're under one roof. We are actually cooperating on some of the projects, but before consumers, we don't really mention much about the relationship between Square Enix and Taito. It's kind of confusing. Even myself -- I use the Square Enix name cards, but I'm actually in charge of Taito Corporation. It's quite confusing.

Yeah, it can be confusing. I had been wondering about it for a while. It's interesting you're in the same building. I had been waiting for Taito to make some Square Enix arcade games, or for Square Enix to publish Taito's games here.

KF: We did in Japan. We had Dragon Quest, which is a very famous game in Japan, but not really overseas.

So you did the coin redemption one?

KF: It's a card battle game. Something like Sega's Dino Battle. Something like that.

Yeah, like Mushiking and stuff?

KF: Yeah, like Mushiking and stuff, exactly. Taito developed the arcade machine of these Dragon Quest games, and of course the games survive in Taito's own arcades, as well as other companies' arcade market spaces.